Media
figures get reprimanded, suspended, or even fired when caught plagiarizing
the work of others. But politicians who get caught sometimes get promotions.
A case in point is former Senator and failed presidential candidate Joe
Biden, now the nation’s vice-president and “one heartbeat
away” from the Oval Office.

Known
for making humorous and outrageous gaffes and statements, Biden’s
history of plagiarism goes back to the time when he ran for president
in 1988. Biden had delivered, without attribution, passages from a speech
by British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock.

Political
scientist Larry Sabato has noted that this led to revelations about a
serious plagiarism incident involving Biden during his law school years,
reports of exaggerations of his academic record, and the discovery that
he had stolen quotations from other politicians, including Bobby Kennedy,
in other speeches.

But
don’t expect the major media to remind voters of Biden’s history
of plagiarism. They are gearing up to declare him the winner of Thursday’s
vice-presidential debate, no matter what happens.

But
another taboo subject remains: Does the so-called “Gaffe-O-Matic”
Vice President suffer from Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia?

Henry
I. Miller has
written in Forbes that Biden’s utterances “suggest some
sort of dementia.” Biden, who will be 70 in November, “frequently
has fumbled and bumbled in his public remarks,” says Miller.

Conservative
writer Ben Hart says,
“Biden raised eyebrows most recently when he insisted in a speech
to a predominantly black audience that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are ‘gonna
put y’all back in chains.’ But this is just the latest in
an endless catalogue of bizarre statements by Joe Biden, who often doesn’t
seem to know where he is or even what century he’s living in. Much
of the time, he appears to be confused, addled.”

He adds,
“One or two crazy statements here and there would not be so alarming.
But Biden is now saying crazy things every time he speaks, every time
he opens his mouth. I actually listened to Biden’s entire ‘y’all
in chains’ speech, and very little of it made any sense at all.”

“Expectations
are extremely low for Biden,” notes
John David Dyche in the Louisville Courier-Journal. “So gaffe-prone
that he previously resorted to plagiarizing campaign speeches, Biden recently
admitted that the middle class has been ‘buried’ during the
last four years. But the national press, desperate to redeem their fallen
champion Obama, will proclaim Biden the winner if he does anything more
than drool on the Norton Center [Norton Center For The Arts at Centre
College] stage.”

Centre
College in Kentucky is hosting the vice presidential debate.

Writing
in the Boston Herald, Holly Robichaud says,
“It will be big if Ryan wins Thursday night’s exchange with
the seasoned vice president. However, you cannot expect the mainstream
media to play it that way—especially after last week’s exercise
in giving every excuse in the book for President Obama’s lackluster
performance.”

As we
noted back in 2007 on the issue of Biden’s plagiarism, Biden had
insisted in a book, Promises to Keep, that he failed to credit Kinnock
on only one occasion, and that the media had exaggerated the incident.
But why was he quoting from a biographical speech by Kinnock in the first
place? Didn’t Biden have his own story to tell? In another case,
a reporter asked about Biden using a Bobby Kennedy quote without attribution.
Biden blamed this on “one of my speechwriters” who “had
inserted an RFK line” into the speech “without telling me.”

This
is the closest Biden has come to admitting he doesn’t write his
own material, and that he repeats what others put in front of him. On
other occasions, however, he is on his own, and that seems to be the most
worrisome.

Incredibly,
Steve Kornacki, a co-host of the MSNBC show, The Cycle, has written an
article under the headline, “Joe Biden to the rescue? The vice
president has a chance to remind his party what a real debater looks and
sounds like.”

On the
other hand, he writes, “Again, it’s possible that Biden will
fall flat on his face Thursday, or that his performance will fall somewhere
in the forgettable middle. But after 40 years in national politics, he
has an unusual opportunity both to alter his own image and to enhance
his future political prospects.”

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Whatever
the result, About.com has compiled “Bidenisms,”
a series of “Dumb Joe Biden Quotes and Gaffes.” Some of the
best:

•
“Folks, I can tell you I've known eight presidents, three of them
intimately.”• “I promise you, the president has a big
stick. I promise you.”• “A man I’m proud to call my friend.
A man who will be the next President of the United States—Barack
America!”

Time
Magazine compiled the “Top
10 Joe Biden Gaffes,” noting, “Throughout his decades
of public service, the former Senator and current Vice President has earned
a reputation for often saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.”

After
Thursday’s debate, the list may get longer. But will the major media
bother to notice?

Known for making
humorous and outrageous gaffes and statements, Biden’s history of
plagiarism goes back to the time when he ran for president in 1988. Biden
had delivered, without attribution, passages from a speech by British
Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock.